Day 27 and 28
- I've loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more. / Calling late at night -
There's a small section of wall between kitchen and front door that homes the landline. It's barely used — so much so that when Sasuke hears it ringing from his spot in the living room, he can hardly distinguish what it is for a moment. It is the first time he's ever heard it go off since he's moved in, and it is perhaps because of that reason that Sasuke picks it up and presses the plastic to his ear without much of a thought. His mouth is open, and he breathes out the first sound of 'hello?' when a voice picks up on the other end.
"Kakashi?" It's Hinata. Her voice sounds fuzzy through the line, but Sasuke can make her out just fine. "Kurenai gave me your number. I'm sorry to bother you so late."
It's barely past nine, but then again, it's just like her to be weary of the time.
He's just about to tell her he's not Kakashi at all when she starts up again, silencing him into a startled quiet.
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to ask Sasuke to move in with me."
The phone slips a few centimeters from his hand before reflex jumps in, fingers squeezing it tight enough for the plastic to crack. He feels like he's twelve again, struck motionless on his first mission — only it's not fear that has his breath caught and his shoulders arched. Hinata is quiet on the other end, waiting for a response. When one does not come, he can hear her shift.
"Kakashi?"
His mentor just then comes down the narrow staircase, having heard the ring of the phone and grew curious when it stopped after several, short seconds. Upon sighting Sasuke in his state, with the phone pushed to his ear, he gets a good idea as to what has just transpired. He comes and takes the phone, tucking it to his shoulder as Hinata calls for him again, growing more concerned.
"Hinata? Yes, sorry, I got distracted." He gives Sasuke a knowing look. "Yes. Oh, sure. Well, wouldn't that be a treat."
His mentor's voice is nothing but amused. Sasuke now feels like he's seven, tugging on his mother's apron as she talks on the phone with her friend, trying his best to hear what is coming from the other end of the line.
Kakashi twirls the cord around his index, nodding along to Hinata's words. "I understand. Don't worry. I won't say a word to him." With that, he hangs up the phone, then turns to Sasuke. "Now you've gone and made me a liar."
"She —" Sasuke scratches his neck. "She wants —"
"Trust me, I heard what she said."
Move in. He's only heard those words once or twice in his life, back when he first returned to Konoha. No one would take him in, naturally, until Kakashi offered him a room upstairs to temporarily hunker down — 'until you find your feet', he'd said. Sasuke hasn't exactly found his feet, but he's found Hinata, and that's a better outcome than he expected a year ago. So now it's come up again. Moving in. With Hinata.
She wants him to live with her.
Sasuke goes up the creaky staircase and into his room, where he sits on his bed and thinks about how, in a week or two, he will be going to bed every night in an entirely different room with nice curtains and a soft carpet and a warm body next to him.
...
With the blade of a pocket knife chipping away, once again, at dried paint on a sun-coated, cool balcony, Sasuke says, "Hinata wants me to move in with her."
Sai considers these words like they're a trick question on a test, debating on which of the multiple-question answers to circle. He taps the handle of his paintbrush along his chin and looks over the half of the balcony that Sasuke has already cleaned with an enthusiasm only a man mad with love can possess. Sasuke doesn't exactly like how easy it's gotten for people to read him, but it's nothing he can really prevent.
Sai opens his mouth, but Sasuke interrupts. "Don't tell her that I know." Then, after a pause: "I mean it."
Spinning the paintbrush on the knuckle of his thumb, Sai nods. "Not a word."
"Thank you."
"I already knew." With Sasuke's pointed look drilling into his skull, he continues. "Kakashi told me that Hinata came to — ah — chew him out, I believe was his wording. She didn't like how you were falling behind on rent, so he told her you'd better move out if you couldn't afford it."
Of course, Kakashi was no innocent bystander in this whole ordeal; but what worried Sasuke was the bit about rent. She didn't think he was broke, did she? Not that she's wrong, of course; but if that was the main reason why she considered him moving in . . . .
Sai crouches next to his friend. "I feel I've said something wrong again."
"I need to prove I can be responsible," Sasuke decides.
Sai tilts his head. "You do?"
"I need to show her I'm not penniless."
"You aren't?"
Sasuke gives him another, very pointed look. "Sai."
"Oh. This is where I comfort you." In a manner that is rather forced, but at the same time heartfelt, Sai pats his back. "You've got this, buddy."
"Don't call me that."
"You'll be a millionaire before you know it."
"That's . . . going too far."
"Well, the Hyuuga will definitely approve if you are," Sai notes.
Sasuke frowns and shoves his blade under another splotch of paint, peeling it from the wood without consideration. "Not helping."
...
Nara Shikamaru, though a lazy bastard, knows to appreciate hard work and determination. That is all Sasuke is — his big selling points, really. Being "One of the Best Ninjas in the World" isn't exactly something you can use to your advantage when you're allowed nothing but D-Ranks, so hardworking and determined is where Sasuke strives, and Shikamaru sees that. Probably.
Or maybe he knows how desperate Sasuke is and is showing pity to the poor fool. Sasuke, a hater of pity and other such things, will not complain for this one time only — because he really is desperate. When he'd come right after scraping clean Sai's balcony, he had stated that he'd like as many missions as Shikamaru could legally give him — or illegally (again, Sasuke is that desperate). And because Shikamaru is a genius, he knows exactly why this request is given, and he agrees to it without much convincing, explaining that Lord Gai and Rock Lee wouldn't mind.
"They love a good love story," he says, smile cheeky as he looks over paperwork for unfilled missions in the next couple of days.
And thus, for three days straight, Sasuke goes from mission to mission, working in the freezing cold and short hours of sunlight. He takes the jobs no one wants — the jobs that pay more — cleaning chimneys and shoveling snow from neighborhood streets and chopping lumber for firewood and hauling fresh meat from farms to butchers to grocery stores. He works eighteen hours a day and sleeps the other six, and if he ever gets a chance to see Hinata, which is rare, he only has minutes to spare before running off to the next job.
She's invited him out to dinner three times.
He accepts none of them; but when he falls into bed at night, he dreams about how they'd play out . . . and what she would say.
On the fourth day, with a good wad of money finally in his wallet, Sasuke finally accepets her invitation.
And despite the cold, when he comes up the salted sidewalk and steps onto her small porch, Sasuke stands there for a good while. The cool seeps into his skin, colling his frantic pulse. He takes in large gulps of air and holds them until his lungs burn. His chakra, muffled, simmers against the winter cold. When he's ready, he lets it flare, notifying her that he's outside before he uses his key to open the door.
She's slipping off her oven mitts when he comes in, crossing the dining room to kiss him before taking a good look at his face.
"You've hardly had a minute to yourself," she says, leading him over to sit and rest at the table before returning to her food in the kitchen. "The Hokage is taking advantage of your punishment."
He likes that she worries, that she gets annoyed for his sake.
"No," he says, "I asked for as many missions as he could spare."
When she asks why, he turns his head to the small pile of books situated on the coffee table, asking about them. If she notices that he's avoided the question, she doesn't say anything.
...
Sasuke waits with as much patience as he has — which, for an Uchiha, isn't much at all. Hyuugas don't seem to have much of it, either, with Hinata proving to be the exception. When she becomes an Uchiha, will that patience slip away?
No.
Probably not.
They eat together, and conversation is sweet and pleasant and exactly what he's been missing, but also what he doesn't want to hear. They eat sukiyaki, warming their tongues with the broth, and look out at the dark, chilly night beyond the window. Sasuke's knee bounces under the table. Hinata takes the dishes and puts them in the washer after a quick rinse, and then they move into the living room to read and enjoy each other's company.
That's when Sasuke finds the phone — the one he didn't know existed until she'd called the other night. And when he sees it, he can't look away, and he's probably making it all so obvious.
Eventually, Hinata rests her book on her lap, nails playing with the pages. She's gathering courage. Finally.
"Sasuke." He puts down his book — as if he'd been reading it at all. "I have something I'd like to talk with you about."
She's going to say it. "Go ahead."
"Well." Her face pinkens, and she dampens her lips before starting again. "If you'd like, would you —"
"Yes."
Her head snaps up. "H-Huh?"
Fuck.
There goes his Uchiha patience.
...
"I heard you over the phone." There's no point in lying. He was going to tell her no matter what; he'd only hoped she'd actually ask him to move in first. "It was me when you first said it. Kakashi took over afterwards, but I heard what you said."
They're sat in different spots: her on the sofa and him in his usual chair. It's easy to see her face in the lamp light, and she doesn't look angry. He doesn't think this is something to be angry about, but sometimes things mean more to one person than another. She'd wanted it to be a surprise, and he had ruined that.
"Oh," she says, and Sasuke doesn't know how to take that.
Oh can me many things. Oh like I understand or oh like I hate your guts and never want to see you again.
"And I know you went to Kakashi about it first," he admits. If he's screwed, he might as well lay it all out on the table. "That's why I took on all those missions. I didn't want you to worry."
"Did you think I asked you to move in because I pitied you?" she asks.
Well.
When it's worded like that, it sounds silly.
"I think that's part of why."
When she laughs, his heart leaps. Hinata places her book down on the sofa before coming over, sitting on her knees next to his armchair, resting her hands on one of his knees. She looks up at him with the yellow glow of the lamp stuck in her eyes, and he's completely caught.
"I want you to move in because I like you being here," she says, grinning. "I want to be on a mission and think: Once I'm home, Sasuke will be there." He thinks about the past three days. Working through snow and ice and freezing winds just to go home to his small, one-person room. It wasn't awful, but if he'd been coming home to Hinata, he thinks it would have been tolerable. "Oh, um, unless you're also on a mission. That will be tricky."
Sasuke feels utterly restless, like he should go out and haul lamb and pig from one end of Konoha to the other. He feels like he should be jumping from roof to roof, picking off ice and snow from chimneys. He feels like he has way too much potential and things to bring to Konoha — and he should be out there and getting things done — not just because this is his village, but because it's Hinata's, too. He wants her to come home from her missions and see the village is just a little bit better than how she left it. He wants everything to remind her of him.
Sasuke cranes forward and sighs, then looks at her through the black stands of bangs hanging over his face.
"I've been in love with you since I was twelve."
Hinata's pink turns crimson. "I-I know."
"It's not just going to stop," he tells her. "I'm going to be with you for the rest of my life. If I'm moving in, I'm staying. Do you understand?"
She is flustered, thrown into a giggling mess; and when she kisses him, Sasuke stays.